YouTube Previews New Channel Analytics Options, Providing More Insight into Content Performance

YouTube has outlined some new analytics options that it currently has in development, and that it’s considering in future, as part of its broader effort to help creators maximize their on-platform performance.

Monetization has become a bigger focus for YouTube of late, as it works to fend off competition from TikTok – because while TikTok is the trending app of the moment, it currently doesn’t provide comparative monetization processes, which means that creators, especially big stars, can make a lot more money by posting to YouTube instead.

YouTube’s hoping that by accentuating this, and providing more analytics tools to its users, that, eventually, will see more of them put more focus on its app, moving away from TikTok as a result, which could help it maintain its position as the key video platform on the web.

The first new analytics offering aims to provide more specific insight into the performance of your content in each stream – i.e. your main channel, live-streaming, Shorts, etc.

As explained by YouTube:

“We want to give you an overview of the different formats – for example, how much you upload and how much you live streamed – tell you about the views for each format, tell you about the overlap in audience between these different formats, and then let you dive into each format individually, so you can see the right analytics, whether it’s for regular videos, or shorts, or live streams.”

As you can see in these example screens, the new format would provide separate tabs for each element, which will provide more perspective on how each is driving views, and what your audience is engaging with. That could help you formulate a more effective content strategy, while also highlighting the comparative value of each format within your approach.

Furthering this, YouTube’s also looking to better highlight your channel revenue split based on content format, so you can see how much money you’re generating from each element.

The big benefit here would be that YouTube would be able to better highlight the benefits of posting to its app, as opposed to TikTok, with the results very likely to show that creators can make a lot more money from longer form uploads and streams.

Essentially, the data, for most users, will show that while short-form clips can be great for engagement, stretching your approach to different formats will get you more money, and seeing this spelled out in clear splits like this will be valuable for planning and promotion purposes. The data will also highlight memberships, Super Chat, and eventually, eCommerce listings and other elements.

Finally, YouTube’s also developing new insights to help creators come up with better, more resonant content ideas.

“We recently launched an experiment to some of you where you can see the popularity of certain search terms, and whether or not, they are ‘content gaps’. We want to expand that, and help you with things like ‘hey, which topics are trending on YouTube?’ or which videos are sort of growing in popularity with your audience, all with the idea of how can we help you expand your audience, or find new topics for your existing audience.”

YouTube first started testing this with a small group of users in November, with the ‘content gaps’ listing highlighting terms that are not currently being served by directly-aligned videos.

So, for example, in this test, you can see, using ‘chromebook’ as the keyword query, that these are the most common Chromebook-related searches that don’t have a directly correlating YouTube video, which could highlight new opportunities for your approach.

It’s similar to Google’s Search Console and Google Trends, providing more insight into what’s driving your YouTube channel traffic, and how you can optimize your content efforts to align with search trends.

YouTube notes that these are currently in testing, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll see a full rollout. But they are the areas that it’s looking to develop, which, again, points to its broader effort to put more pressure on TikTok, using its established monetization systems as a key lure to win over more creators.

Will that work, and will it become a more significant threat to TikTok’s rise?

Already, there are rumblings among TikTok creators around its flawed payment models. Unless TikTok can make some big changes, that could well become a key concern in future.